Why shouldn't merit be paid for?

Abstract

These two statements summarise the debate about merit pay, insofar as there is one; unfortunately, to my mind the debate is so muted that the case for merit pay is going by default. It has become the conventional wisdom in the civil service, the nationalised industries, local government and academic life, and in most manual and many clerical jobs, that all on the same grade should be paid the same regardless of ability, effort, or potential. There is the possible variant that fixed increments may take the employee on a more‐or‐less unconditional progression from the minimum to the maximum of his own grade.

Citation

Sturt, M.H. (1975), "Why shouldn't merit be paid for?", Education + Training, Vol. 17 No. 10, pp. 267-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb016404